WTF, HBO?

I realize I’m super late on this, but here goes. I just finished reading the A Song of Ice and Fire series (well, at least the books that have thus far been published), so I was SO FUCKING EXCITED to see this television show that everyone’s been raving about for the past four years.

There are a lot of memorable scenes from the books; the first one that indelibly burned into my brain was Daenerys and Khal Drogo having sex on their wedding night. GRRM describes how Daenerys is crying at first, but Drogo takes hours to comfort her, undress her, and then basically get her into a full stage of arousal by caressing her everywhere until she’s wet before asking her consent to have sex. She replies with an enthusiastic yes, and it’s super hot. Sexual agency! It’s the best. Reading that scene, I was like “Fuck YES. GRRM knows how to write sex scenes for women!”

So then WHY IN GODS’ NAMES (see what I did there, GoT fans?) does HBO turn this scene into a rape?!? Drogo looks angry as he fucks her from behind, Daenerys is sobbing, and there is definitely no verbal or implied consent (via body language) given. You’d think that after Sex and the City, HBO would be comfortable with women’s desire, but apparently rape is more palatable to viewers in the minds of HBO executives and / or the show’s writers than a teenage female expressing sexual desire. Just. Ugh.